Business Group Backs CL&P Rate Request

Andrea Wise | Hartford Courant

Andrew Hindle, a troubleshooter for Connecticut Light and Power works to restore power to the roof of 133 West Street in Cromwell. A downed tree ripped the electrical cables out of the home of Robert Smith earlier Wednesday.

Andrew Hindle, a troubleshooter for Connecticut Light and Power works to restore power to the roof of 133 West Street in Cromwell. A downed tree ripped the electrical cables out of the home of Robert Smith earlier Wednesday. (Andrea Wise | Hartford Courant)

Who supports CL&P's rate increase? The state's largest business group does.

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association, the state's largest business organization with more than 10,000 member companies, has long lamented high energy costs as an undue burden on businesses and one main reason why economic growth has generally been slow.

But Friday the organization filed a last-minute letter of support for Connecticut Light & Power's $231 million rate hike, posted Friday afternoon hours before the public comment period for the request closes.

Eric J. Brown, the group's director of energy and environmental policy, said his letter's support for the rate increase was not a blind endorsement of the Northeast Utilities company's request.

"We have a long-standing message from our members and board of directors that both cost and reliability are big issues," Brown said in a phone interview Friday afternoon. "In certain times the primacy of those two issue can flip-flop.

"What we're trying to convey is infrastructure is a good investment and with respect to this particular approach, we basically trust [the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority] to do the kind of review and analysis to make sure the final agreed amount is prudent and not excessive," Brown said, stopping short of saying it was his position that the request should be reduced.

It is unclear how much real support letters like this end up having on the outcome of a rate case, which is largely governed by state statute, oversized spreadsheets of numbers and percents, and the testimony of experts. The same goes for the legion of citizens and state lawmakers and officials writing that the application should be rejected outright.

Opening the rate case in August, Chairman Art House reminded everybody that utilities like Connecticut Light & Power have the right to recover costs and make a reasonable return on what it spends, that the spending would be scrutinized, and that input on specific points about the financials greatly outweigh outright endorsements or rejections of the increase.

Frank J. Johnson, president of the Manufacturing Alliance of Connecticut, a group of more than 150 industrial companies, said he also supports Connecticut Light & Power's investments in reliability because many of his members lost power and lots of revenue in the major storms of recent years.

But he would have done things differently.

If he were to write to regulators he would have stressed their responsibility to only allow prudent and reasonable costs in the increase. "To actively say they need to raise the rates," Johnson said, "that's a little unusual."

While the CBIA letter was written on behalf of its more than 10,000 members, Brown said no survey or polling was done to determine their support.

Looking at the record of public comments, those against the rate increase vastly outnumber letters like Brown's, though his is far from the only one in favor. Also on the list of support letters: Hartford Public Library, the towns of North Stonington and Berlin, Habitat for Humanity, the city of Waterbury and the Connecticut Economic Resource Center.